Flyers celebrate return to the playoffs with a 3-2 win over Penguins in Game 1

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Travis Sanheim scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period and the Philadelphia Flyers announced their return to the playoffs with a 3-2 win over Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.

Flyers Penguins Hockey

Philadelphia pulled off a stunner in the opener when Sanheim split a pair of Penguins at the top of the zone, glided down the slot and then fired the puck by Stuart Skinner. Porter Martone, the Flyers' 19-year-old rookie forward, provided some needed insurance when he beat Skinner on a wrist shot with 2:37 to play.

Game 2 is in Pittsburgh on Monday.

Jamie Drysdale also scored for the Flyers, who hardly appeared intimidated by an electric PPG Paints Arena crowd buzzing by Pittsburgh's first playoff appearance since 2022. Dan Vladar stopped 14 shots to pick up the first postseason win of his six-year career.

“We’ve been playing big games for the last month, month and a half, meaningful games, must-win games,” Flyers forward Sean Couturier said. “We’re put to the test and thought we did a good job of preparing ourselves and being ready.”

Evgeni Malkin scored his 68th career playoff goal for Pittsburgh but the Penguins, the NHL's third-highest scoring team during the regular season, had trouble sustaining pressure against the Flyers. Bryan Rust pounded home a rebound with 1:01 remaining to get Pittsburgh within a goal, but Vladar stoned Anthony Mantha in the final seconds as Philadelphia held on.

“We got away from things that worked,” first-year Penguins coach Dan Muse said. “Part of that is intensity. Everything is ramped up in the playoffs. They’ve been playing that way for a while.”

The eighth all-time playoff meeting between the cross-state rivals may also be the most surprising. The Penguins' retooling under general manager Kyle Dubasunexpectedly picked up speedunder Muse.

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The Flyers — who arrived at PPG Paints Arena for their morning skate wearing T-shirts with sleeves that had “3.8 percent” printed on them as a nod to their slim postseason chances a couple months ago —used a scorching final stretchto reach the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

Philadelphia wasted little time keeping that momentum going. The Flyers held Sidney Crosby and the rest of the Penguins in check while deftly countering to create numerous odd-man rushes.

The new kids helped Philadelphia match Pittsburgh hit for hit and then smashed the gas over the final 20 minutes, with Matrone's first playoff goal — in just his 10th-ever NHL game — providing the final difference.

“I think coming in here, I think the older guys have done a great job, not just with me, but all the guys on the team, showing us the ropes,” Martone said after becoming the youngest Flyer to score in his postseason debut.

And the ropes dictate that a promising start guarantees nothing in a best-of-seven.

“We won one game, this is going to be a long series,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. "Those kids, they were hooting and hollering a little bit, but they were pretty even keel.”

AP NHL playoffs:https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cupandhttps://apnews.com/hub/nhl

byAlpha World

in

April 21, 2026

Flyers celebrate return to the playoffs with a 3-2 win over Penguins in Game 1

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Travis Sanheim scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period and the Philadelphia Flyers announced their r...

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Iranian official says US 'maximalist' demands stall face-to-face talks

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — Iran is not yet ready to hold a new round of face-to-face talks with U.S. officials, a senior Iranian official said Saturday, citing Washington's refusal to abandon “maximalist” demands on key issues.

Turkey Diplomacy

In an interview with The Associated Press on the margins of a diplomacy forum in Turkey, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh also said his country will not hand over its enriched uranium to the United States, rejecting claims made by President Donald Trump.

“I can tell you that no enriched material is going to be shipped to United States,” Khatibzadeh said. “This is non-starter and I can assure you that while we are ready to address any concerns that we do have, we’re not going to accept things that are non-starters.”

On Friday, Trump said that the U.S. will go into Iran and “get all the nuclear dust,” referring to the 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium believed to be buried under nuclear sites badly damaged by U.S. military strikes last year.

Khatibzadeh said there have been many exchanges of messages between the sides but accused the United States of holding firm on demands Iran deems to be excessive.

“We are still not there yet to move on to an actual meeting because there are issues that the Americans have not yet abandoned their maximalist position,” Khatibzadeh said. Iran was seeking the finalization of a “framework agreement” before moving to an in-person meeting, he added.

The Iranian official would not go into specifics of the negotiations with the United States or say which issues remain unresolved but called on Washington to address Iran’s concerns, including sanctions imposed on Iran.

“The other sides also should understand and address our main concerns, which are illegal unilateral sanctions that Americans have imposed on Iranians and this economic terrorism which has targeted Iranian people to suffocate them and make them to revolt against the political structure inside Iran,” Khatibzadeh said.

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Asked whether Iran would respond to renewed attacks by Israel on Lebanon despite the ceasefire, Khatibzadeh said: “Iran has no option, just to stop aggressors once and forever.”

Trump said that Israel is “prohibited” by the U.S. from further strikes on Lebanon and that “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in self-defense.

The Iranian official renewed Iran’s position that Tehran’s actions were defensive and in response to unprovoked aggression occurring in the middle of negotiations.

He also reiterated Iran's position that the ceasefire must extend to Lebanon, where Israel had been fighting with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

When the U.S. and Iran declared a temporary truce last week, Pakistan and Iran said it extended to Lebanon, but Israel — and later the U.S. — denied this. Israel then launched a series of airstrikes on central Beirut, prompting Iran to announce it was once again closing the Strait of Hormuz. Following implementation of a truce in Lebanon Friday, Iran said it had reopened the strait.

“Iran negotiated with good faith, accepted a ceasefire and told everybody that this ceasefire should include all countries, including Lebanon,” Khatibzadeh said. “Then the other side said that, it is not committed to this and then started atrocities.”

He said that a “new protocol” would be put in place for the Strait of Hormuz as part of the negotiations with the U.S. and it would “remain open and safe for all civilian passage.”

Trump has said a U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will remain and attacks will resume if no agreement is reached with Iran.

byAlpha World

in

April 21, 2026

Iranian official says US 'maximalist' demands stall face-to-face talks

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — Iran is not yet ready to hold a new round of face-to-face talks with U.S. officials, a senior Iranian official s...

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Tyler Reddick's last-lap move, his fifth win, and a pace not seen since Dale Earnhardt in 1987

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — None of the past fourNASCAR Cup Series championsmanaged to win more than four races in their entire season.

Puts into perspective the kind of roll Tyler Reddick is on right now.

The driver for the 23XI Racing team co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan picked up hisfifth win of the season on Sunday,when he made a last-lap pass of reigning series champ and defending race winner Kyle Larson to win at Kansas Speedway.

It wasn't just Reddick's fifth win of the season. It was his fifth through nine races, a pace matched only four times in NASCAR's top series, and not since Dale Earnhardt started off the 1987 season that way. Earnhardt went on to win six more times while claiming the third of his seven championships, and there's little to make it seem that Reddick can't do the same thing.

“I mean, it's early,” Reddick said after joining Jordan in a post-race celebration. “Certainly over these next 17 races (before the playoffs), the ones that are missing it a little bit here and there are going to start hitting. I think the competition will certainly continue to tighten up as we get through this year. We've done a really good job of making the most of our days."

Scoring a lot of points, too. The revamped postseason structure means that whomever is leading before the Chase begins gets a huge advantage, and Reddick already has a big lead over Hamlin and the rest of the field in that regard.

“We’ll just try and get as comfortable a lead as possible,” he said. “If we can maintain a gap like this as we get further into the season, hopefully it puts us in position to try and steal some more wins if it’s split-strategy calls middle of the race or late in the race.”

It's not just Reddick that is running on all cylinders, though. His entire team is on a roll.

Bubba Wallace ran near the front most of Sunday and finished fifth. Riley Herbst was 14th, one spot ahead of Corey Heim, who made a spot start in the No. 67 car for the first time since the season-opening Daytona 500 yet was every bit as quick.

That's pretty strong stuff for a race team that is in just its sixth season.

“I think the missing part has been really executing across the board,” 23XI president Steve Lauletta said. "Our pit crews have taken a big step forward. Everybody worked really hard in the offseason to refine our processes and our communication.

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“We're only what, nine races into our sixth season? Still a lot of work to do be done.”

Yet the work is clearly paying off.

After winning three times in 2024, Reddick was shut out entirely last year. Wallace won the team's only race at the Brickyard 400, and an organization that seemed to be ascending suddenly appeared to have leveled off a bit.

Now, 23XI is on an entirely different level. One that nobody else seems to be matching.

“I mean, again, super gratifying,” Lauletta said. “It wasn't just (Reddick) not winning, right? Just as an organization, we only won one race. It was the Brickyard, which was great. There was no heads being hung. It was just more the attitude of, ‘We’ve got to get to work,' and that was across the board. ... A lot of really good things are happening overall that started with the work that we needed to do in the offseason to kind of make sure we would be where we wanted to be as an organization this year.”

Where they wanted to be was up front. Reddick is putting them there every week.

It's not just the five wins, either. He was in contention to win a couple of weeks ago at Bristol before finishing fourth, had another top-10 run at Phoenix, and has finished in the top 15 and on the lead lap in each of the first nine races this season.

Next up is Talladega, too, where Reddick won just a couple of years ago.

“When you win,” Jordan said Sunday, “it's always fun. Right now it's fun for everybody at 23XI. Me being here (in Kansas) and being able to see all the wins, I'm so happy for the team. I just think we need to continually build on this, without a doubt.”

AP auto racing:https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

byAlpha World

in

April 21, 2026

Tyler Reddick's last-lap move, his fifth win, and a pace not seen since Dale Earnhardt in 1987

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — None of the past fourNASCAR Cup Series championsmanaged to win more than four races in their entire season. ...

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Why The Independent’s evidence from last September is a problem for Starmer

As he set out his defence to the House of Commons,Sir Keir Starmerwas asked multiple times by MPs, including the Conservative leaderKemi Badenoch, aboutThe Independent’sfront page story on 12 September last yearthatPeter Mandelsonhad failed security vetting.

More damaging still are the WhatsApp messagessent by this publicationto the then director of communications in Downing Street, Tim Allan, raising the issue on 11 September.

This has been described by a number of civil servants and senior politicians as the “smoking gun” in the entire scandal, because it is at odds withthe prime minister’s own assessment.

Sir Keir claimed that he, his ministers and Downing Street only found out about the security vetting failure last week. But doubt has been cast on this claim becauseThe Independentinformed Downing Street’s most senior communications official months before.

Added to that, it raises serious questions about what the prime minister was told in September by his then director of communications.

In normal circumstances, these issues are raised through the system and lead to investigations into the truth. Most crucially, they should have raised a red flag with the prime minister.

But it seems that nothing happened and the warnings were ignored.

This is no small thing. Lord Mandelson spent months as the UK’s ambassador to Washington.

He was the most important UK diplomat in the United States at a time when Britain was grappling with a difficult president in the White House.

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As ambassador, he would have been party to a huge amount of information, some of it designed to be seen only by those who have passed the highest level of security vetting.

When the prime minister sacked him last September, he accused Lord Mandelson of lying to his officials during that process and said he had fired him when the full extent of his relationship emerged with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Then, crucially, in February, Sir Keir told journalists: “Security vetting, carried out independently by the security services, which is an intensive exercise that gave him clearance for the role. You have to go through that before you take up the post. Clearly, both the due diligence and the security vetting need to be looked at again.”

But this took place months afterThe Independentinformed No 10 of the failure.

On Monday, the PM insisted that he should have been told last year that his former man in Washington had failed security clearance. But, of course, Downing Street was told this byThe Independent.

Last week, Sir Keir said he was “furious” when he found out and that it was unacceptable he was not told.

Within hours, he had fired the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, Sir Olly Robbins. That, Sir Keir has been very clear about, was because he was aware of the recommendation not to give Lord Mandelson security clearance and did not inform the prime minister.

But Sir Keir still faces a key question, one which was summed up by the mother of the House, the long-time Labour MP Diane Abbott, who is currently suspended from the party and sits as an independent.

She cornered him in the Commons to ask: “It’s one thing to say, as [Starmer] insists on saying, ‘Nobody told me, nobody told me anything, nobody told me’. The question is, why didn’t the prime minister ask?”

byAlpha World

in

April 21, 2026

Why The Independent’s evidence from last September is a problem for Starmer

As he set out his defence to the House of Commons,Sir Keir Starmerwas asked multiple times by MPs, including the Conservative leaderKem...

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‘Serious consequences’: Telegram faces major Ofcom probe over child sexual abuse concerns

Ofcomhas launched a formal investigation into themessaging app Telegramto determine if it "has failed, or is failing" to tackle child sexual abuse material.

The UK’s online safety regulator initiated its probe after receiving evidence from theCanadian Centre for Child Protection, which alleged the presence and sharing of such illegal content on Telegram.

Following its own assessment, the UK regulator decided to open an investigation into possible failings by Telegram "to comply with its duties in relation to illegal content."

Under the UK'sOnline Safety Act, providers of so-called user-to-user services, such as Telegram, are "required to assess and mitigate the risk of this horrific crime being perpetrated on their platforms."

Ofcom said firms which fail to do what is required of them to protect children will “face serious consequences”.

Suzanne Cater, director of enforcement at Ofcom, said: “Child sexual exploitation and abuse causes devastating harm to victims, and making sure sites and apps tackle this is one of our highest priorities.

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“It’s why we work so closely with partners in law enforcement and child protection organisations to identify where these harms are occurring and hold providers to account where they’re failing to meet their obligations.

“Progress has undeniably been made, particularly with file-sharing services, which are too often used to share horrific child sexual abuse imagery.

“But this problem extends to big platforms too, and teen-focused chat services are too easily being used by predators to groom children. These firms must do more to protect children, or face serious consequences under the Online Safety Act.”

If failures to comply with the Act were identified, it is possible Ofcom could impose fines of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, depending on whichever is greater.

Ofcom also said in the most serious cases it can seek a court order requiring internet service providers to block access to the service in the UK.

The regulator also announced on Tuesday that it had opened investigations into whether the providers of chat services Teen Chat and Chat Avenue “are taking appropriate steps to assess and mitigate the risk of UK users encountering illegal content and activity, including grooming”.

The watchdog said its work with child protection agencies had raised concerns about the risk to children on the platforms, which both have chatrooms, private messaging, and what it described as media sharing functionalities.

byAlpha World

in

April 21, 2026

‘Serious consequences’: Telegram faces major Ofcom probe over child sexual abuse concerns

Ofcomhas launched a formal investigation into themessaging app Telegramto determine if it "has failed, or is failing" to tack...

Read More